When you hit a low do you feel sorry for yourself and complain bitterly, or do you seek to pull yourself back up and learn from it. When you are on a high do you make the most of the moment, working hard and feeling grateful, or do you sit back and become complacent? How you answer these questions is an important indicator of how
Famous artists depict Satan as a winged demon with goat horns and cloven hooves. If the devil really presented temptation to us in this obvious guise, we would easily be able to recognise and resist it. Sadly that is not the case. We tend to think of temptation as something that will lead us into a life of crime or immorality, but temptation is simply
We often hear folk proclaim that their faith is a very private affair, something strictly between themselves and God. Of course there’s a place for private worship, but at the end of the day, what good is a religious conviction that rarely impacts others and fails to make the world a better place? Today Jesus tells us that if we live by our faith we
What if Jesus had asked Peter, Andrew, James and John, “How do you see yourself five years from now?” Do you think they might have replied, “Still fishing for a living, in the same old fishing boats on the same old lake!” Not likely! The early disciples knew exactly where their priorities lay and they understood the urgency of Jesus’ ministry. There was a whole
There are those in our society who stand head and shoulders above the rest of us … great entrepreneurs, politicians, writers, scientists and humanitarians. We look up to these people and wish that we were more like them. When interviewed, these great people might pass some of the credit for their success on to a teacher who has made a big impression on them, an
We embark on a diet and the days of lettuce and low calorie drinks loom gloomily. We embark on a fitness regime and our subconscious whispers, “Fifteen more minutes under a warm duvet versus a jog round a freezing park … I know what I’d choose!” In today’s gospel, John the Baptist preaches “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The idea of
